5 Things You Can Do to Improve Your Mood for National Happiness Day

National Happiness Day is celebrated in the beginning of August. Here are some simple tips you can implement to improve your mood and well-being.

Get Moving!
Regular exercise has been linked to improved moods and overall health. Amazon Prime currently has an awesome series of guided workouts you can stream from the comfort of your own home.

Take Advantage of the Great Outdoors

Making time to go outside on a nice day also delivers a huge advantage. One study found that spending 20 minutes outside in good weather not only boosted positive mood, but broadened thinking and improved working memory…

Pay it Forward, Lend a Helping Hand

One of the most counter-intuitive pieces of advice I found is that to make yourself feel happier, you should help others. In fact, 100 hours per year (or two hours per week) is the optimal time we should dedicate to helping others in order to enrich our lives.

Plan a trip – but don’t take one

Although it is hard to advocate against vacation, it seems that planning a vacation can improve our happiness. A study published in the journal, Applied Research in Quality of Life, showed that the highest spike in happiness came during the planning stage of a vacation as employees enjoyed the sense of anticipation. In the study, the effect of vacation anticipation boosted happiness for eight weeks. After the vacation, happiness quickly dropped back to baseline levels for most people.

Meditate – rewire your brain for happiness

Meditation is often touted as an important habit for improving focus, clarity and attention span, as well as helping to keep you calm. It turns out its also useful for improving your happiness. In one study, a research team from Massachusetts General Hospital looked at the brain scans of 16 people before and after they participated in an eight-week course in mindfulness meditation. The study, published in the January issue of Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, concluded that after completing the course, parts of the participants’ brains associated with compassion and self-awareness grew, and parts associated with stress diminished.

Meditation literally clears your mind and calms you down, it’s been often proven to be the single most effective way to live a happier live.